Meet The Maker - Apostle Hot Sauce

We're incredibly fortunate to have the opportunity to collaborate with passionate small businesses in New Zealand that are doing truly inspiring work. Their enthusiasm is infectious, and we can't help but share their stories. That's why we've created an exciting Meet-The-Maker series, allowing you to get acquainted with the dedicated individuals who are the driving force behind the brands we admire.

To start off this series with a bang, we're thrilled to introduce you to the phenomenal duo, Mat & Lydia, from apostle Hot Sauce. So sit back, relax with a cuppa, and get ready to delve into the world of these amazing creators behind the brand.

We are a small team of two - Lydia & Mat. Lydia works full time in graphic design when she's not making sauce so had all the skills to design our labels. Mat has a background in hospitality and an immense passion for creating delicious food. Along with our shared love of beautiful products and religious art and iconography we made the perfect team to create a food product together!

Mat is constantly tinkering with something in the kitchen and would often make delicious homemade sauces to share with friends. When we moved to Paekākāriki, as a way of getting to know our neighbours we started to attend the local markets here. They quickly took off so Lydia started pushing us to do something more. We worked on the base recipes and brand concept for over a year before finally launching at the end of 2019. 

3. Which gorgeous corner of Aotearoa do you live in and what is your favorite part of living there?

We're from Paekākāriki, a lovely beachside village on the Kāpiti coast. It's really such a wonderful place from the natural beauty of the coastline to the loving community spirit - Can't say we'll ever be leaving.

4. Share one of your most treasured moments working in your business so far...

There are so many things that really make us treasure starting Apostle but the biggest thing is that we really feel like we've found a community in the New Zealand food scene.
All the incredible lovely people we've met along the way from customers who share pictures of their delicious meals with us online and our wonderful stockists to other small producers and chefs - It all makes it worthwhile.

5. What is your favourite Apostle product and why?

For Lydia it's the St. Peter - Kiwifruit and Kawakawa Verde. Super fresh and tangy it's perfect on fish or even a humble cheese toastie! For Mat it's the St. Matthew - Chocolate and Manuka Chipotle. Hearty and rich on nachos it's a real winner!

6. As a small NZ business, what has been your biggest hurdle to overcome?

Managing costs as a small business is incredibly difficult!  We're a tiny market very far away from the rest of the world so costs of things like ingredients and packaging as well as export makes it especially hard to be sustainable as a business, especially with a niche product like ours.

7. How are you celebrating Matariki this year?

We feel Matariki is a great time to step back and reflect on all you've accomplished this year so far. It's easy to get quite worn down during winter, so taking the time to celebrate all the positives can be really refreshing. 

8. With Matariki being the start of a new year, what's a skill or goal you want to accomplish this coming year?

We have two new Saints that we've been working on for over a year that we can't wait to share and we're also working on building a local food production hub in our village that we can share with other small Kāpiti based producers. Wish us luck! 

9. Apart from working with rad businesses like Refill Nation, what do you put into practice to be a sustainable business? 

All of our green waste is composted by us and we also have a return scheme with our vinegar suppliers to send their containers back to be refilled! We also have our own bottle return scheme where customers can return their used glass bottles to one of our great stockists (like Refill Nation) and they'll be sent back to us to be cleaned and reused.

 

You can find Apostles full range of delicious hot sauces, in store and online.